Douglas Murray is a bestselling author and award-winning journalist based in London. He has written for numerous publications including the Telegraph, Spectator, Wall Street Journal and Sunday Times. He is a columnist for Standpoint magazine and the Director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, a Westminster think-tank which studies radicalisation and extremism in Britain.

Why should a Danish newspaper apologise for republishing a drawing of a dead tradesman?

The Danish paper Politiken has "apologised" for reprinting the famous cartoons of Mohammed after complaints from a number of Muslim groups. The paper re-published the cartoons in 2008 along with other Danish papers in solidarity after another attempt on the life of one of the cartoonists, Kurt Westergaard.

In a joint statement, the "two sides" said that they wished to "express their satisfaction with this amicable understanding and settlement, and express the hope that it may in some degree contribute to defusing the present tense situation".

The apology comes at the request of eight Muslim groups in the Middle East and Australia. They were represented by a Saudi lawyer. What business a Saudi lawyer has with the editorial decisions of a Danish newspaper is beyond me.

In any case, the complaint against the cartoon was so ludicrous that if Politiken's editors had any sense they shouldn't even have even written a pro forma letter acknowledging receipt. The groups that the Saudi lawyer claimed to be acting on behalf of "94,923 of Mohammed's descendants". Now I know he got around, but 94,923? Really? Are they sure? Mind you, in my experience it is hard to find people who don't claim to be descendants of Mohammed once the cartoons start flying. The last such claimant (against the author Mark Steyn) was Canadian.

The problems that will come from this, and the implications it will have for the free press in free countries, may take some time to emerge. But to pose the question baldly: why should people who claim to be descended from a dead historical figure have their feelings respected any more than anyone else? It's not like they knew the person they claim to be related to. Besides, in all probability the complainants are no more related to Mohammed than I am. The fact is that Politiken have conceded that offence can be caused by publishing a drawing of a man who in the eyes of the Danish state must be considered a deceased tradesman.

Now Politiken are in the game of having to apologise to one group for hurt feelings, they may find themselves stretched for time.

I trust from now on that anybody, internationally, who has ever found anything offensive in the paper in question will ensure they too get an apology. Politiken's website is here. May I recommend that readers scour it for anything whatsoever they might find mildly irksome? A picture, a photo, a fact, a word. Somewhere on there is an interview with me from last year. That's often a good place to start.

Politiken have grotesquely trampled on the solidarity the Danish press have shown in the cartoons affair. But this apology also epitomises one of the most aggravating trends currently being accepted, which is the notion that Muslims somehow have deeper feelings than the rest of the world. One Muslim man tried arguing exactly this with me only a few nights ago. The idea goes that Muslims are especially sensitive because their feelings are very very deep. So deep, indeed, that non-Muslims can't possibly imagine the hurt feelings caused by a pen-and-ink drawing that they don't like and, in most cases, haven't seen.

There is only one suitable response to such a claim – which is to continue to stress time and time again that, no, their feelings are not deeper. Some of us (including some Muslims) believe in the right to freedom of expression and the freedom even to publish cartoons just as much as some Muslims might believe in their "prophet". Most of us regularly have our deepest feelings trodden upon, not least by the expressions of bigoted Muslim attitudes. But we don't burn things, we don't intimidate people, and we don't force apologies out of newspapers for offence caused. Because we recognise that being offended is part of being a grown up in a free society. The sooner more Muslims learn that the better.

Politiken should have told their complainants where to get off. Instead they buckled. Shame on them.